Bible Question: Must we be born of water and the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God?

Bible Answer: John 3:4-7 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”Jesus answered “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you. “You must be born again”

Bible Question: Doesn’t John 1:12 teach that one is saved without baptism?

Bible Answer: John 1:11,12 reads as follows: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

When the New Testament mentions faith in connection with salvation, but the other conditions of pardon are not mentioned, faithalways means obedient faithand stands for all the conditions involved. This is evident from the fact that men are notjustified “by faith only”(James 2:24). It is also evident from the fact that the faith that avails in Christ is faith that “workethby love: (Gal. 5.6).

The Kind of faith that saves is faith that moves one to do what Christ commands in order to obtain the remission of sins. Christ requires faith, but He also requires repentance (Luke 13:5). So the faith that saves demands that the believer repents of his sins. Christ requires men to confess Him before others (Matt. 10:32). So the faith that saves must lead to confession of Christ. Christ also made baptism in water a requirement for salvation from past sins (Mark 16:16). So the faith that saves will act in response to the Lord’s command to be baptized for the remission of sins.

John 1:12 does not say that those who “believe only”will become the children of God. Notice carefully what the Lord did say here. He said that one who believes on His name receives “power to become the sons of God.” But this“power” (right or privilege) must be exercised in obedient faith. The one who becomes a child of God is one who by faith repents of his sins, confesses his faith in Christ, and is baptized “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38).